Primary Research?

I love this meme.

As we wrap up our secondary research, it's time to begin shifting gears and moving on to Stage IV which involves primary research. In class, we'll be discussing the different ways we can choose to conduct primary research, ethical considerations, and some general strategies/advice. Your task for the next week is to create your survey instrument and... begin researching! Deadlines are really going to start sneaking up on us; don't put this off!


Here's some required reading on creating instruments and conducting research.

Use that as a guide when conducting your own. You don't need to read the entire thing; first decide what type of research you'll be conducting, and read/absorb what's relevant to you and your project. If you decide not to go with a survey/interview and prefer to do an observation or analysis, you'll be turning in your raw results (A typed version of your observation notes, for example, or a typed analysis of a paper). If you're doing a survey/interview, your results don't need to be ready yet -- you'll be turning in your questions. If you've already gotten some preliminary results, though, you're welcome to hand those in, too, for some additional feedback.

For TR Students:

Drafts of your instrument are due Tuesday. Since we're a little short on time, your instrument doesn't have to be beautiful and perfect. Just bring something to class on Tuesday so you can benefit from feedback on it. 3 copies! Your finalized draft will be due Thursday, March 7th (our last meeting before spring break -- woot woot!).

For MWF Students:

Drafts of your instrument are due Wednesday, March 6th. Bring 3 copies to class for peer review. It doesn't have to be perfect at that point, but do come with something so you'll benefit from feedback. Revisions will be due on Friday, March 8th (our last meeting before spring break -- woot woot!).

AN AMENDMENT TO STAGE IV: Please also include a brief explanation about your primary research plans and your process so  far. This doesn't have to be hugely long or elaborate, but it will help me to better access what you're doing.

Annotated Bibliography Example

But you must.

Because you need it. 

Here are the questions I'll be asking myself while grading your annotated bibliographies.

1. Does the author offer a thorough summary of the article? Are the main points addressed? Is it in their own words?

2. How does the author address the strengths and weaknesses of the article? Does it discuss the author's motives, how the claims exist in discourse?

3. How does the article relate to the author's research question? Does the author make a clear connection as to how they'll be using this to support/refute their own claims?

4. Does the author include a properly formatted works cited entry? It should be BEFORE the actual citation, as indicated in the example above.

Hope this helps, guys. Get to work on your Stage III's! 

First Compocon Meeting

I thought this was cute. Also, it's an example of brainstorming.

Kiddos:

On Monday/Tuesday, we'll be meeting with other 1302 classes and experts from around campus as part of the Compocon project. Here are the details:

 

Monday 2.18.13

8:00 am – 12:30 pm | ARHU 107 (this is the theater room)

 

Tuesday 2.19.13

8:00 am – 12:30 pm | VC 1.108 (the visitors center)

1:10 pm – 4:00 pm | VC 1.108

 

 

 

Please come during our class time with your research question and something to take notes with. You'll have an opportunity to discuss your projects with other students and get feedback from a variety of different people.

 

Your assignment will be as follows:

 

Write a one page reflection on your experience with our first Compocon meeting. Who did you talk with? How are you going to use this information to help you with your research?

 

This needs to be typed, double spaced. It is due on Wednesday/Thursday after Compocon. 

 

 

Stage II Concerns

Here are the leading questions for our peer review session today!

1. Interest

How does the author express their interest in their topic? Do they articulate why the topic made them curious?

2. The Question

Is my topic focused enough? How might I focus it further/add detail?

Are their any other perspectives to my research question that I could add?

Is my question researchable?

Is it "fresh" -- has it already been answered within this context?
Is it meaningful?
Is it investigatable, given our resources?

3. Hypothesis

Does the author include their best guess as to the answer? Do they explain why they think this might be the case?

4. Resources

Will my resources help me answer/investigate my research question?

Does my plan include plans for both primary and secondary sources?
Do my sources seem legitimate?

Developing Your Research Question

This weekend, you've got two tasks:

1. Read Kleine

and 2 (maybe a little more important) is to begin working on your Stage II.

The first step of Stage II is drafting and developing your research question. Please bring a draft of your question to class on Monday/Tuesday.

Having trouble honing down your research question?

Here are just a few examples:

• Do college freshmen and seniors use rhetorical strategies at all or in similar ways?
• How do grammar skills develop?
• What makes a classic literary work a "classic"?
• What makes an effective business plan?
• How does music effect writing or revision?
• How do literacy activities vary at high or low income daycares?
• What kind of writing will a social work major encounter?
• Is writing taught in medical school? Should it be? How?

Need a little more help? Why not post it here and see if your peers can help? I'll be popping in, too, for advice and guidance.

Feel free to ask anything research related in the comments section. This will be a good opportunity for us to share our thoughts/ideas/concerns/complaints about that smelly old professor, etc...
 
Extra points available IF you're particularly helpful to someone else.

Mustache not required to participate.

"Greeneisms" Assignment

Warning: This Assignment Requires Rhetorical Thinking

Choose a concept from the Greene article (aka a Greeneism) and work with your group to come up with a definition of it. Then, find a way to "Teach" your concept to the class. You're required to include a visual aid, which can be anything, really, that helps us to have an idea as to what your concept means (within the context of Greene's article). You might choose to do a drawing/sketch, rage comic, meme, skit, or my personal favorite -- an interpretive dance! Have fun; great creative. And this doesn't need to be uber complicated. Sometimes the most simplistic explanations and visuals are the most effective. I'll be posting some of the better ones on the blog!

Thoughts on Greene

Greene's article is all about constructing arguments. But I think to first understand what he means, we have to understand how he defines certain terms. Do you think his term "argument" is different from the one above? How do you define "argument"? How is it defined in an academic setting?

I think I'm pretty guilty of throwing out lofty academic words, but this might be a good time to flesh out their definitions. What lofty words come up in our readings, class conversations, emails, etc that you think we would benefit from fleshing out, as Greene does with "argument?" Rhetorical is one example that I tend to throw around all the time -- what are some others?

For extra credit, feel free to discuss Greene below and/or pose examples and try to define some of these lofty Professor Hoerthisms. We'll be discussing this more in class.